Fabio Manganiello on Nostr: Grid companies should not be allowed to charge more for consumption during peak ...
Grid companies should not be allowed to charge more for consumption during peak hours. Or, at least, not as a permanent solution.
Charing more during peak hours means two things:
Bills may become unsustainable for the poorer households who have no alternatives but to run their electric appliances between 5pm and 9pm.
Electricity providers aren’t actually incentivised to upgrade the grid.
It’s estimated that about $30B should be spent in the Netherlands alone to ensure that the grid can cope with the new levels of demand.
This isn’t because people have suddenly decided to leave their hairdryers and washing machines on for hours in a row.
This is because people are replacing gasoline cars with electric vehicles. Gas boilers with heat pumps. Gas cookers with induction.
In order to curb emissions, we have laws that ban gasoline cars in the center of Amsterdam within a couple of years, force people to install hybrid or electric heating systems, and incentivise the purchase of electric alternatives.
Did grid operators do the math?
Did they realize that this would have translated in higher demand for electricity - and we’re talking of 2x-5x more?
Did they roll up their sleeves before the new electric wave started mounting to install new cables, new power stations, new energy storage solutions and new generation capacity that could prepare them for such an increase in demand?
I can say that at least in my neighbourhood they tried (but Liander has been struggling with its installation of a new power station in Uilenburgerstraat against hordes of selfish boomer NIMBYs who say that the view of an electric power station will ruin the value of their houses).
Besides that, I haven’t seen a lot of efforts.
I haven’t seen new cables being installed, and new storage and generation hardware installed, to prepare us for a 2x-5x increase in demand.
Asking people to avoid using appliances between 5pm and 9pm, or charging them more for doing so, isn’t a structural solution to address a structural increase in demand.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/03/grid-companies-suggest-higher-fees-for-peak-period-electricity/
Charing more during peak hours means two things:
Bills may become unsustainable for the poorer households who have no alternatives but to run their electric appliances between 5pm and 9pm.
Electricity providers aren’t actually incentivised to upgrade the grid.
It’s estimated that about $30B should be spent in the Netherlands alone to ensure that the grid can cope with the new levels of demand.
This isn’t because people have suddenly decided to leave their hairdryers and washing machines on for hours in a row.
This is because people are replacing gasoline cars with electric vehicles. Gas boilers with heat pumps. Gas cookers with induction.
In order to curb emissions, we have laws that ban gasoline cars in the center of Amsterdam within a couple of years, force people to install hybrid or electric heating systems, and incentivise the purchase of electric alternatives.
Did grid operators do the math?
Did they realize that this would have translated in higher demand for electricity - and we’re talking of 2x-5x more?
Did they roll up their sleeves before the new electric wave started mounting to install new cables, new power stations, new energy storage solutions and new generation capacity that could prepare them for such an increase in demand?
I can say that at least in my neighbourhood they tried (but Liander has been struggling with its installation of a new power station in Uilenburgerstraat against hordes of selfish boomer NIMBYs who say that the view of an electric power station will ruin the value of their houses).
Besides that, I haven’t seen a lot of efforts.
I haven’t seen new cables being installed, and new storage and generation hardware installed, to prepare us for a 2x-5x increase in demand.
Asking people to avoid using appliances between 5pm and 9pm, or charging them more for doing so, isn’t a structural solution to address a structural increase in demand.
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/03/grid-companies-suggest-higher-fees-for-peak-period-electricity/